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Saturday, 2 November 2013

Remembrance Day Challenge: George Danson - A Man of Many Roles.

REMEMBRANCE DAY CHALLENGE is the prompt from Julie at Anglers Rest who invites us to present a photo collageand write about our ancestors and familywho served in war.

My great uncle George Danson (1894-1916) has featured on my blogbefore and a full profile of him as a soldier can be
read at "A Stretcher Bearer in the Field" written for the Sepia Saturday prompt series.

Do take a look as it is a
poignant example of how many fine young men died in the First World War. I was
fortunate to inherit from his sister Jennie (my great aunt) a collection of
photographs and memorabilia which add so much to the story of his short life.

Here I have tried here to take a new approach by looking at the different roles George played as son, brother, uncle, friend, employee and finally soldier.

George was a stretcher bearer in the Royal Army Medical Corps and died at the Somme a
week after his 22nd birthday on September 16th 1916.

George is remembered as:

A SON - the youngest of eight surviving sons of son of James and Maria Danson of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire.

AN UNCLE to my aunt Edith and mother Kathleen Danson (right). As the youngest of their Danson uncles, George was nearest to them in age, their obvious favourite and he took on the role of big brother. They spoke fondly of him and recall the distress of their Granny on the news of his death,

A CHURCH MEMBER - George sang in the choir at St. Chad's Church in Poulton-le-Fylde

A FRIEND - George had enlisted January 1916 at Halifax, West Yorkshire. His service record gave his address at the time as 17 Harker Street, Harley Bank,Todmorden, with occupation station bookstall manager.

I turned to the 1911 census online and found the Dodd family at 17 Harker Street, Harley Bank,Todmorden, with head of household Elizabeth Dodd (occupation choring) and three daughters Amy aged 15 (a cotton weaver), Edna 12 (a fustian sewer) and Lavinia aged 9. This photograph was found amongst the collection of George's sister Jennie, who wrote the inscription on the back.

AN EMPLOYEE - in the 1911 census 16 year old George was described as a "bookstall newsboy". He later
worked on WH Smith station bookstalls in Poulton, Manchester and Todmorden.

George in front of his station bookstall.

A SOLDIER

Two letters written by George in 1916 are with the family. The first written from army training camp on Salisbury Plain in March was to his eldest brother Robert with the words:

"I will tell you one thing
it is no easy job the army life today & I am of the opinion as most of the
chaps here that is that they won’t be sorry when it is all over.However I will say there are times when I enjoy
it immensely & other times I feel rather off it, being such a long way from
home & all my friends, but we must all make the best of it."

The second written from France on August 20th 1916 was to Frank - the brother neared to him in age.

"At present we are about 8
miles behind the firing line and getting along fairly well, but a day or two
ago, I fully expected having to go right into the front line trenches but
luckily escaped that, and had to assist withwounded out 4 miles behind at a dressing station, and stuck to it for about
40 hours ad when finished I had a good rest.We should not have worked so long only there has been a(?) on & I’mglad to say, we captured everything our chaps
went out for, although it made us rather busy.
...................

it’s
blooming hardwork in a stretcher bearer
on the field. On Friday afternoon I was in a big bombardment & will say it
was like a continual thunder & lightening going off & as I write
there(?) blooming big guns about 50
yards away going every few minutes so you will see it's not great. ......

Don’t
I wish that both yourself, Tom and myself and all of us could get home again
for about a week.Wouldn’t that be grand
(?) lad, there’s a good time coming & I hope we shall all be there to join
in."

Three weeks later George was dead.

Captain Macleod in writing to his mother , said "He was one of my stretcher bearers and was gallantly doing his duty over open and dangerous ground which suddenly became subjected to severe shell fire. He continued steadily bearing his burden and was only stopped by the shell that took his life. We mourn his loss and are very proud of him".

Thank you all for your kind comments. I could not complete this challenge without featuring George, but he has appeared a few times in my blog over the years, so wanted to do something slightly different. . I am pleased that this approach (which came to me in a flash in the night) inspired your thoughts. . ,

About Me

I have been interested in family history for years. It all began when I was allowed as a child to look through the old family photographs and memorabilia kept in a shoebox in the cupboard at my grandfather's house. That treat started me on a fascinating ancestral trail.